Explore the thought-provoking musings of Issuecrat T.D. El-Amin on contemporary societal issues and reflections on today’s political challenges.
Several weeks have passed since the final tally in a very contentious Congressional race between County Prosecutor Wesley Bell and Congresswoman Cori Bush, which saw Bell the victor. As with many races, the respective supporters of competing campaigns experience contentious emotions surrounding their candidates. In this race, I witnessed this contentious divide encroach upon many people who were personally aligned in friendships and close associations.
I understand there’s deep connections, and issues that are of supreme importance and sit at the apex of our moral positions. Anything, person or policy that runs counter to that rightfully invokes a wrath of emotions. That’s ok. But what we’re witnessing in political discourse has progressively gotten worse and more acrimonious, and in some cases outright dangerous.
Civility must be restored in political discourse and dialogue, so that not only the political aspirants but people stay engaged with the political process in hopes of change and belief that some change can come through the ballot box. The people must demand this and reject the politics of division, politics of hate, politics of blame and reject those aspiring for office that can’t offer a departure from such, nor plan to bridge those gaps created from these contentious campaigns. Whomever one voted for, stay engaged, hold accountable who ascends the position through your commitment to stay involved.
IF THESE CONDITIONS DON’T EXCITE VOTERS WHAT WILL
It’s hard to get excited about the national Presidential race and Democratic National Conventions when less than 30% turnout to vote in the local elections. The immediacy of the impact of policy is more readily felt on the local level..so why the blind eye. Maybe the bench of excitable candidates is lacking? Maybe there’s a disconnect with the political party apparatus and lack of investment to spur greater turnouts. Whatever the case, we have to do better at the polls locally.
WILL DEMOCRATS PAY COST FOR NEGLECT OF BLACK COMMUNITY AT THE POLL
The Black vote is never ignored (especially being the most loyal vote bloc) but the need to seriously engage the African-American community in addressing native issues, commitment and investments is ignored and continues to lag relative to support given from this voting demographic. We’ve seen a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate express trepidation in supporting its party’s African-American female presidential nominee, we’ve witnessed the party’s political apparatus involve itself in a congressional race pitting two African-Americans against each other. We’ve witnessed the Dem party fail to seriously recruit and support African-American statewide candidates.
The state’s Democratic Party will continue to fail statewide if they don’t come up with a plan to stop the hemorrhaging of Black votes/support as a result of what was benign to a now malignant neglect of the African-American community. African-Americans are becoming increasingly independent, unaligned and unwilling to toe a partisan line that doesn’t see reward in doing so.
#civilityinpolitics, #politicalengagement, #holdthemaccountable
